Dem. Lawmakers Introduce Federal Gun Licensing Bill

Congressional Democrats are trying again to expand federal restrictions on gun rights, this time by requiring Americans to provide police with fingerprints, photos and other personal information before making any handgun purchase.

Democratic Reps. Elizabeth Esty (CT) and Chris Van Hollen (MD) and Sens. Chris Murphy (CT) and Richard Blumenthal (CT) introduced twin versions of a bill, the Handgun Purchaser Licensing Act, in the House and Senate last week.

The bill is modeled on Connecticut’s handgun purchasing law, which requires potential gun owners to undergo a background check, submit fingerprints, complete a training course and pay a $70 fee.

The bill’s sponsors claim the Connecticut system has saved thousands of lives since it was passed in 1995, although researchers including John Lott of the Crime Prevention Center have pointed out that shootings fell even faster in other nearby states that didn’t have the law during the same time period.

The authors of the bill also conveniently ignore the endless list of killers who have passed criminal background checks to purchase murder weapons. Breitbart.com lists a few:

Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi (Garland), Jared and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barbara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Andrew John Engeldinger (Minneapolis), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), Tennis Melvin Maynard (West Virginia), James Holmes (Aurora theater), Jared Loughner (Tucson), Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood 2009), Jiverly Wong (Binghamton), Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech), Naveed Haq (Seattle), and Mark Barton (Atlanta).